Rotary announces $96.5m to end polio

Rotary has announced US$100 million in grants to support the global effort to end polio, a vaccine-preventable disease that once paralysed hundreds of thousands of children each year.

Rotary is allocating the majority of the funds it announced to Afghanistan ($22.9 million), Pakistan ($21.7 million), and Nigeria ($16.1 million).

The announcement comes as Nigeria marks two years without any reported cases of wild poliovirus, following four reported cases in 2016.

Dr Tunji Funsho, chair of Rotary’s Nigeria PolioPlus Committee stated “Nigeria has prevented further cases of wild poliovirus thanks to the improved surveillance and rapid response protocols Rotary and its Global Polio Eradication Initiative partners have supported, particularly in Borno.

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“We must remain vigilant about maintaining political and financial support to ensure strengthened immunization practices as we redouble our efforts toward ending polio in Nigeria and around the globe.”

Aziz Memon, chair of Rotary’s Pakistan PolioPlus Committee said “Nigeria’s progress proves that halting the spread of wild poliovirus is possible.

“Although we currently have a record low number of reported cases of polio in Pakistan, we must remain vigilant about implementing the rapid response and surveillance protocols Rotary and its Global Polio Eradication Initiative partners have established and focused on accelerating our efforts toward eradicating polio.”

Further funding will support efforts to keep 12 vulnerable African countries polio-free: This includes Cameroon ($98,600), Central African Republic ($394,400), Chad ($1.71 million), Democratic Republic of the Congo ($10.4 million).

Others are Sierra Leone ($245,300), Somalia ($776,200), South Sudan ($3.5 million), Guinea ($527,300), Madagascar ($690,000), Mali ($923,200), Niger ($85,300) and Sudan ($2.6 million).

Africa will also see $5.8 million in funding for surveillance activities and $467,800 for technical assistance. Additional funding will go to Bangladesh ($504,200), Indonesia ($157,800), Myanmar ($197,200), and Nepal ($160,500), with an additional $96,300 funding surveillance in Southeast Asia.

The remainder of the funding ($6.6 million) will go to the World Health Organization (WHO) for research activities.

Rotary has committed to raising $50 million a year to be matched 2-to-1 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, amounting to $450 for polio eradication activities over a three-year period.

To date, Rotary has contributed more than $1.8 billion to fight the disease, including matching funds from the Gates Foundation, and countless volunteer hours since launching its polio immunisation program, PolioPlus, in 1985.

In 1988, Rotary became a core partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative with the WHO, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Since the initiative was launched, the incidence of polio has plummeted by more than 99.9 per cent, from about 350,000 cases in 1988 to 22 confirmed in 2017.